Steve Lukather Official Website - Thriller Thriller Buy on iTunes In 1982 Michael Jackson released the world's largest selling album of all time, Thriller. This album produced 7 hit singles, breaking yet again more records, and went on to sell over 50 million copies worldwide. Michael was keen to use music video or short films as he called them to promote his singles from the album. He worked with the best directors and producers, using the latest technology and special effects for the hit song Billie Jean. The short film Thriller used the latest make-up artists technolgy combined with fantastic dancing and choreography, to produce a 14 minute video, with a start, a middle and an ending. So successful was this video that The making of Michael Jackson's Thriller became the world's largest selling home video combined with soaring album sales. In 1983 Michael performed the now legendary moonwalk for the first time on the 'Motown 25 years' anniversary show. This performance alone set Michael undoubtable into the realm of a superstar. In 1984 Michael won a record breaking 8 Grammy awards in one night.

The awards were for his work on the Thriller album and his work on the narrative for the ET Storybook. Rock guitarist Eddie Van Halen was interviewed by Rolling Stone magazine in 1984. In the interview, he explained why he didn't ask for any royalties over the sales of Beat it, the song on which he plays a guitar solo. "I did it as a favor. I didn't want anything. Maybe Michael will give me dance lessons someday. I was a complete fool, according to the rest of the band [Van Halen], our manager and everybody else. I was not used. I knew what I was doing. I don't do something unless I want to do it." Steve Lukather: "Quincy Jones and Michael took a skeleton version of Beat it up to Eddie Van Halen's place as they wanted him to solo over the verse section. However, he played over a section that had more chord changes. So to fit his solo to where it went in the song, they had to cut the tape which took a lot of time to synchronise together." "After they had managed this, Jeff Porcaro and me were called in to bind Eddie's solo and some haphazard percussion which was a major headache.

Initially, we rocked it out as Eddie had played a good solo but Quincy thought it too tough. So I had to reduce the distorted guitar sound and this is what was released. It was a huge R&B/rock success for us all really and helped pave the way for the bands of today that fuse these styles." Steve Lukather in 2004: "I was doing all of Quincy Jones' records back then. I wanted to be a part of this one as Michael was way hot after Off the wall. I remember having a lot of fun and the music was good. Funny story: I was in the house band for the Grammy's "Album of the year" three years in a row. Quincy's The dude record, Toto IV, then Thriller. It was happening big time back then. The last great era of the 'session guy' scene. I had a blast at that time as we were doing almost every record that came out of LA.

We took a lot of shit from the press for it; still do, but 28 years later I am still working!!!" Tracklist Wanna be startin' somethin' (Michael Jackson) Baby be mine (Rod Temperton) The girl is mine (duet with Paul McCartney) (Michael Jackson) Thriller (Rod Temperton) Beat it (Luke & Eddie) (Michael Jackson) Billie Jean (Michael Jackson) Human nature (Steve Porcaro & John Bettis) P.Y.T.

(Pretty young thing) (James Ingram & Quincy Jones) The lady in my life (Rod Temperton) Thriller special edition bonus material: o Someone In The Dark (Never before available on a Michael Jackson solo album) o Billie Jean (Michael Jackson's original demo recording) o A segment from the Michael Jackson & Vincent Price voice over session from Thriller (including Vincent Price reading the never before heard 2nd verse) o Carousel (outtake from the Thriller sessions) o Interview with Producer Quincy Jones discussing the recording of Thriller o Interview with songwriter Rod Temperton Credits Michael Jackson: guitar, arranger, sound effects, vocals, handclapping, producer, vocal arrangement, horn arrangements, rhythm arrangements Steve Lukather: guitars (3) (5) (7), arranger, bass Eddie Van Halen: guitar solo (5) David Paich: synthesizer, piano, arranger (7), keyboards, rhythm arrangements, synthesizer arrangements Jeff Porcaro: Drums (3) (5) (7) (9) Steve Porcaro: synthesizer, arranger (7), programming, synthesizer Programming Rod Temperton: synthesizer, arranger, vocal arrangement, rhythm arrangements, synthesizer arrangements Howard Hewett: vocals

 (bckgr) James Ingram: keyboards, vocals (bckgr), handclapping Janet Jackson: vocals, vocals (bckgr) Paul McCartney: vocals (3) Quincy Jones: producer, vocal arrangement, rhythm arrangements Bill Reichenbach: trombone David Foster: synthesizer, synthesizer arrangements LaToya Jackson: vocals, vocals (bckgr) Vincent Price: vocals, rap Bunny Hull: vocals, vocals (bckgr) Tom Bahler: keyboards, synclavier Brian Banks: synthesizer, programming, producer Michael Boddicker: synthesizer, keyboards, emulator, vocoder Leon "Ndugu" Chancler: drums Michael Jackson Thriller Era Thriller Album Michael’s original plan for the album was to include 3 music videos or “short films” for “Billie Jean”, “Beat It” and “Thriller”.

“Billie Jean” was released as the album’s second single on January 22 1893. The music video was given a budget of $250,000 and was directed by Steve Baron. The concept came from both director and artist and proved to be very successful. After 3 weeks, “Billie Jean” hit the number one spot in the U.S. At this time, MTV (or Music Television) rarely played black artists on their daily rotation. Michael Jackson was one of the first to get played on the station and the first to get played in “heavy rotation” (i.e. several times a day) with the video for ‘Billie Jean” . MTV started “heavy rotation” for the “Billie Jean” music video in March 1983. The video for ‘Beat It” would follow this trend. Many in the music industry have commented that it was Michael’s breakthrough with the channel that started other black artists’ music videos being played on MTV and also bolstered the station’s popularity. Thriller’s sales soared and it was the first time an album would be at number one in the USA and the UK at the same time.

While “Billie Jean” was still at the top of the charts, the album’s third single was released; “Beat It”, on March 5, 1983. The short film for “Beat It” was paid for and conceptualised by Michael Jackson himself. It was directed by Bob Giraldi and co-choreographed by Michael Jackson and Michael Peters. The cast included 100 members of real street gangs and cost an estimated $150,000. “Beat It” became number one the week after its release and Michael Jackson became the first black artist to have the number one album and single simultaneously in the US and the UK. On March 25th 1983, Michael performed on the television show: Motown 25: Yesterday, Today and Forever. The show would not air until May 16th 1983. Approximately 47 million viewers tuned into the show to watch the many Motown acts perform as well as a special performance by Michael Jackson and his brothers; the original cast of the Jackson Five plus Randy .

After an emotional performance of a medley of Motown hits with his brothers, Michael stole the spotlight with his incredible solo performance of ‘Billie Jean” . During the electrifying performance, Michael debuted his now signature dance move: the moonwalk. The performance received an overwhelming response from the live audience and viewers all over the world. Some say that this was the performance of Michael Jackson’s career and it would launch him into super-stardom over night. Through the medium of television, Michael had confirmed his position as an incredible entertainer among his fans and also reached millions of people who had never experienced Michael Jackson’s talent as a singer and dancer. The performance sparked a new interest in the album Thriller and millions rushed to the store to purchase it. Michael’s Motown 25 performance was nominated for an Emmy award for “Best Individual Performance on a Variety or Music Program”. First Moonwalk As a result of the surge in sales of the album Thriller, millions also purchased albums by other artists. Cash box magazine dubbed Michael Jackson ‘the saviour of the record business” and Michael was credited for increasing interest in music, particularly black music.

Revenues for record sales were at their highest since 1978 and Michael was also mentioned for increasing CBS record sales profits by a whopping 101% in 1983 alone. In May 1983, “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’” was released and became Thriller’s forth number one single. In June 1983 Michael fired his management. “Beat It” and “Billie Jean” still remained at the top of the charts and Michael took more care and more control in his business affairs. “Human Nature” and “P.Y.T” were released while Michael was planning the short film for “Thriller” and both became top 10 hits. The short film and single “Thriller” was released on 2nd December 1983. For the 14 minute short film, John Landis was hired to direct and Rick Baker for special effects make up. The film cost an estimated $1 million of Michael’s own money. To re-coup some of the budget costs, John Landis negotiated a deal with Showtime, MTV and Vestron to fund a 60 minute documentary on the making of the short film.

Making Michael Jackson’s Thriller was aired in 1984 and sold on video tape. It became the biggest selling music video of all time, with estimated sales of 9 million as of 2006. Prior to the “Thriller” single release, the Thriller album sales had “slowed” to approx 200,000 copies a week The week after the single and short film was released, sales of the album soared and once again, Thriller was number one on the album charts. Estimated sales showed that the “Thriller” single and video resulted in an additional 14 million copies of the Thriller album being sold within a six month period. At this time, Michael hired a new manager; Frank Dileo, who would remain with Michael for five years. Thriller Video On January 16th, 1984, Michael Jackson attended the 11th Annual American Music Awards. He won 8 awards, including “Favourite Male Pop/Rock Artist”, “Favourite Pop/Rock Album” for Thriller, “Favourite Soul/R&B Album” for Thriller as well as the Award of Merit.

On January 27, 1984, Michael was burned on the back of his head while filming a commercial with his brothers for the Pepsi Corporation. The magnesium smoke bombs used for the commercial were to blame; being only two feet away from either side of Michael’s head. A spark from one of the bombs set Michael’s hair alight and resulted in second and third degree burns his scalp. As a result of the incident and news coverage, both Pepsi and Michael’s sales soared. Pepsi paid Michael Jackson $1.5 million, which he immediately donated to a burn centre created in his name and honour. Two subsequent Pepsi commercials were debuted at the Grammy awards ceremony in 1984. Grammy's 1984 In May 1984, Michael was asked to donate the song “Beat It” for anti drink driving advertisements. For donating the song and for his many achievements in recoding and charity, Michael was given a special award at a presentation at the White House by President Ronald Reagan. In July 1984, Michael embarked on the Victory Tour with The Jacksons. The Tour started on July 16th in Kansas City and the Victory album was released on the same day.

The tour consisted of 55 shows over 5 months in the United States and Canada. The tour was the biggest and most successful of its time and Michael announced at the start of the tour that he would be donating all of his profits to charity. It would be Michael’s last tour with the brothers. Victory Tour The Thriller campaign was officially shut down in 1984 and continued to sell a staggering amount of copies. By the end of 1984, Thriller had sold 33 million copies. Michael Jackson was inducted into the Guinness Book of World records as having the biggest-selling album of all time. Today, Thriller is by far the biggest selling album of all time. It was re-certified in 2007 as having sold in excess of 104 million albums. It is estimated that Thriller sells approx 60,000 copies a year worldwide! Album sales aside, it still remains one of the most important and greatest albums of all time. It set many industry standards in recording and for the visual presentation of music. In January 1985, Michael was asked to participate in an all-star recording to raise funds for charity United Support of Artists for Africa.

U.S.A for Africa would raise funds to administer essential supplies and famine relief in Africa. Michael, who has always been sensitive to the plight of Africa, was so excited about the song that he offered to write it with Lionel Ritchie. Michael and Lionel worked for a week at Michael’s Encino home and finally finished the music and lyrics for “We Are The World” the day prior to the scheduled recording of the song. The all-star cast to record the song included forty five chart topping artists. Quincy Jones was enlisted as producer and co-arranger with Tom Bahler. The recording took place on 28th of January 1985. Michael told his fellow recording artists that night that “We Are The World” was a “love song to inspire concern about a faraway place close to home”. After the recording was finished, none of the artists were prepared for the impact the song would have. It was released on March 7th 1985 and sold approximately 800,000 copies in its first three days of release. The song stayed at number one in America for a month and enjoyed similar success in many other countries.

By 1986, the song had sold in excess of 7.5 million copies and raised $8 million dollars for famine relief. The song went on to win three Grammy Awards: “Song of the Year”, “Record of the Year” and “Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group”. It also won two American Music Awards: “Award of Appreciation” for Michael Jackson and “Song of the Year”. In March 1985, Michael Jackson topped off an incredible era when he purchased ATV Music Publishing Company for $47.5 million. ATV’s music catalogue included the rights to more than 4000 songs, including 251 of The Beatles’ compositions. This purchase made Michael Jackson one of the top music publishers in the world and proved Michael to be a successful and savvy businessman at the age of 26. Next read about the Bad Era, 1986 - 1989 , when Michael continues to dominate the music world. Or read about the previous Off The Wall era . Sources: Michael Jackson: the Magic and the Madness by J. Randy Tarraborelli Michael!

By Mark Bego Michael Jackson The Man In The Mirror by Todd Gold Michael Jackson The Golden Touch by Paul Honeyford Michael Jackson by Gordon Matthews Michael Jackson & The Jacksons Live on Tour in ’84 by Philip Kamin & Peter Goddard (websites used for consultation and confirmation of official dates and official award titles only) Article written solely for allmichaeljackson.com by Marni Carlsson. Thriller - Michael Jackson | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic Michael Jackson google+ AllMusic Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine Off the Wall was a massive success, spawning four Top Ten hits (two of them number ones), but nothing could have prepared Michael Jackson for Thriller . Nobody could have prepared anybody for the success of Thriller , since the magnitude of its success was simply unimaginable -- an album that sold 40 million copies in its initial chart run, with seven of its nine tracks reaching the Top Ten (for the record, the terrific "Baby Be Mine" and the pretty good ballad "The Lady in My Life" are not like the others).

This was a record that had something for everybody, building on the basic blueprint of Off the Wall by adding harder funk, hard rock, softer ballads, and smoother soul -- expanding the approach to have something for every audience. That alone would have given the album a good shot at a huge audience, but it also arrived precisely when MTV was reaching its ascendancy, and Jackson helped the network by being not just its first superstar, but first black star as much as the network helped him. This all would have made it a success (and its success, in turn, served as a new standard for success), but it stayed on the charts, turning out singles, for nearly two years because it was really, really good. True, it wasn't as tight as Off the Wall -- and the ridiculous, late-night house-of-horrors title track is the prime culprit, arriving in the middle of the record and sucking out its momentum -- but those one or two cuts don't detract from a phenomenal set of music. It's calculated, to be sure, but the chutzpah of those calculations (before this, nobody would even have thought to bring in metal virtuoso Eddie Van Halen to play on a disco cut) is outdone by their success.

This is where a song as gentle and lovely as "Human Nature" coexists comfortably with the tough, scared "Beat It," the sweet schmaltz of the Paul McCartney duet "The Girl Is Mine," and the frizzy funk of "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)." And, although this is an undeniably fun record, the paranoia is already creeping in, manifesting itself in the record's two best songs: "Billie Jean," where a woman claims Michael is the father of her child, and the delirious "Wanna Be Startin' Something," the freshest funk on the album, but the most claustrophobic, scariest track Jackson ever recorded. These give the record its anchor and are part of the reason why the record is more than just a phenomenon. The other reason, of course, is that much of this is just simply great music.

Track Listing Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' at 30: How One Album Changed the World | Billboard Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' at 30: How One Album Changed the World COMMENTS "Thriller" conquered racial divides and evolving platforms at MTV, radio When executives of CBS Records went about the business of preparing for the November 30 release of Michael Jackson 's "Thriller" in the fall of 1982, they knew they had on their hands a terrific album by one of the biggest superstars in the music industry. But they were also a bit concerned, since the timing of Jackson's follow-up to his mega-selling 1979 album "Off The Wall" could not have seemed worse. For starters, the record industry as a whole was in a bad slump, with shipments industry-wide down by 50 million units between 1980 and 1982. CBS Records' own profits were down 50% and sales were down over 15% for the year.

As a result, major company-wide layoffs occurred in mid-August, on a day the company would remember as "Black Friday." CBS desperately needed Jackson's album to be a hit, but market conditions appeared daunting. THIS IS THRILLER (1) With sales of 29 million, according to the RIAA, "Thriller" is the best-selling studio album in U.S. history. The set is tied with the Eagles' best-of collection, "Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975." (2) "Thriller" has spent the most weeks (37) atop the Billboard 200 of any album by a single artist. Only the "West Side Story" soundtrack (54) has reigned longer. (3) The "Thriller" No. 1s "Billie Jean" and "Beat It" are two of Jackson's 13 Hot 100 leaders, the most of any solo male artist. (4) "Thriller" became the first album to generate seven Hot 100 top 10 hits.

• CHART BEAT: MJ's Biggest Chart Thrills ABOUT THE AUTHOR OF THIS ARTICLE: Steve Greenberg ( @steviegpro ) is the founder of S-Curve Records and a Grammy winning record producer who had an integral role in developing the careers of Hanson, Joss Stone and the Jonas Brothers, among many others. Find more of his writing here. Stories circulated in the press about how the slump in the business stemmed from kids feeding their money into the coin slots of video game arcades instead of spending it on music. But that trendy theory was, to say the least, inadequate in explaining the industry's malaise. What really had happened over the previous three years was a seismic technological shift that had torn apart the very idea of the mass audience upon which pop hits depended: By the end of the 70s, 50.1% of radio listeners were tuned to FM, ending AM's historical prevalence and hastening the demise of the mass-audience Top 40 stations that had dominated the radio ratings since the 1950s. By 1982, FM commanded 70% of the audience-and among the 12-24 year old demographic, it was 84%.

Consequently, a mass pop music audience that crossed demographic lines could not be sustained. Instead of listening to stations which offered "the best of everything" as they had on the old AM Top 40's, the abundance of choice on FM afforded listeners the luxury of hearing only the musical sub-genre they liked on more narrowly formatted stations, without having to wade through everything else. The result of this shift was that each audience segment had only limited exposure to the music played on the formats targeted to other audience groups. Billboard columnist Mike Harrison noted in 1981 that "No longer is there an exclusive Top 40 anything, but rather an ever-changing multitude of Top 40's, depending upon the genre one wants to research or focus on. He added "Those who enjoy a-little-bit-of-this-and-a-little-bit-of-that….constitute a minority." In fact, by 1982 many markets, including major ones like New York City, didn't even have a mass appeal Top 40 station anymore. Precision targeting of audiences meant that radio stations needed to avoid playing anything that fell outside their target listeners' most narrowly-defined tastes.

Failure to do this would lead to listener "tune-out," the fatal turning of the dial. This situation led Newsweek, in an April, 1982 article titled "Is Rock on The Rocks?" to assert that increased fragmentation had drained most of the excitement from the pop scene, as there was no longer much cross-fertilization between musical styles. Newsweek concluded their article on what they called "rock's doldrums" by reminiscing about the "good old days" when Elvis Presley and the Beatles created excitement by providing an identifiable center to the pop music world, recording music that the various segments of the pop music audience could all share. According to Newsweek, Elvis and the Beatles were "Phenomena produced by a nation responding in unison to the sounds on every Top 40 radio station." The magazine went on to predict that "In today's fragmented music marketplace, no rock star can hope to have that kind of impact." If that prognosis wasn't enough to give CBS Records executives sleepless nights, one aspect of radio's fragmentation was particularly scary: Since the start of the decade, black music had been increasingly banished from most white-targeted radio stations.

This was partially due the virulent, reactionary anti-disco backlash that resulted in the implosion of that genre at the end of 1979. As the 80's dawned, programmers increasingly stayed clear of rhythm-driven black music out of fear of being branded "disco," even when the black music in question bore little resemblance to disco. This backlash was greatly magnified by the demise of AM mass appeal Top 40 radio at the hands of FM, which led to black artists being ghettoized on urban contemporary radio, while disappearing from pop radio, which focused on a more narrow white audience. How dramatic was the decline of black music on the pop charts in that period? In 1979, nearly half of the songs on the weekly Billboard Hot 100 pop chart could also be found on the urban contemporary chart. By 1982, the amount of black music on the Hot 100 was down by almost 80%.

The fall of that year represented the nadir of black music's presence on the pop chart: Not one record by a black artist could be found in the Top 20 on the Top 200 album chart or the Hot 100 singles chart for three consecutive weeks that October-a phenomenon unseen since before the creation of Top 40 radio in the mid 1950s. Michael Jackson: His Life in Photos In this environment, numerous No. 1 urban contemporary hits, like Roger Troutman's "Heard It Through the Grapevine" or "Burn Rubber" by the Gap Band, failed to make the pop Top 40, and one, Zapp's "Dance Floor," failed to even crack the Hot 100. Prince's "1999," which would later emerge as a pop culture anthem, flopped at Top 40 radio even as it soared up the urban chart. A black superstar like Rick James could sell over 4 million albums while remaining unknown at the time to most listeners of white-oriented radio. His "Super Freak," which like "1999" would eventually come to be considered iconic, peaked at No.

16 on the Hot 100 in 1981, and was not played at all on many pop stations, whose programmers shied away because it had "that disco feel." In all of 1982, only two No. 1 records on the Billboard Hot 100 were by black artists: Lionel Richie's "Truly" and "Ebony and Ivory" by Stevie Wonder in tandem with Paul McCartney (In fact, they were the only two records by black artists to even make the Top 3). And those two records veered so far into easy-listening territory that neither of them even made it to No. 1 on the black chart (Billboard rechristened the R&B chart as the Top Black Singles chart in June of 1982). In fact, the only record to hit No. 1 on both the pop and black charts during all of 1982 was by a white act: "I Can't Go For That" by Hall & Oates. A seemingly impenetrable wall had been erected between the black listening audience and its white counterpart; for the most part, neither black kids nor white kids had any idea what the other was listening to.

And just as it seemed things couldn't get more difficult for a black artist hoping for across the board appeal, something new and scary appeared on the scene: MTV. MTV's playlist was just as fragmented as that of white radio, and it was taking the music world by storm. (Page 2 of 4) History has been unkind to early MTV's exclusion of black music from its format, but this is somewhat unfair. Launched at the height of radio playlist segregation, the channel at first could not fathom the idea that its target audience--teens in the overwhelmingly white suburbs and small towns who were the first to receive MTV on their cable television systems in late 1981 -- would want to hear black records, with which they were unfamiliar. In a world without mass appeal Top 40 radio, the idea of mass appeal Top 40 video was far from obvious. But at least on the radio dial, there were choices for those who wanted to seek out black music. On television, MTV was the only game in town. And its power to steer pop tastes was quickly becoming apparent, as hits began to gather steam in the hinterlands simply due to MTV exposure, without any radio play.

MTV's true impact was not fully felt until the channel made its debut on cable systems in the New York and Los Angeles areas in September of 1982. Suddenly, that which had been a rumor wafting in from the heartland became a loud thunderclap waking up the cultural agenda setters in the nation's twin media capitals, who accurately hyped MTV as the Next Big Thing. It is no coincidence that the aforementioned nadir of black music's presence on the pop charts occurred in October, 1982 -- a moment when all of pop radio and the only music channel on television excluded it from the mix. Enter Michael Jackson. By the time he delivered "Thriller" to CBS's Epic label in 1982, Jackson had been one of the top recording stars in the world for over a dozen years, both with and without his brothers. However, his most recent album, the mega-hit "Off The Wall," which spawned four Top 10 singles, had been released in 1979, a year when 40% of the songs that reached the Top 3 on the Hot 100 were by black artists, before the wall separating black and white music on the radio arose.

"The Girls Is Mine" CBS Records was well aware that there were no black records at all in the pop Top 20 the week they sent the debut single from "Thriller" to radio in October of 1982. Faced with the very real possibility that Jackson's record would fail to become exposed to a crossover radio audience, the record company took no chances. That first single, "The Girl Is Mine," was a gentle, easy-listening leaning duet with the ex-Beatle Paul McCartney, most recently Stevie Wonder's duet partner. The presence of McCartney, still very much a pop radio mainstay in the early 80's, virtually insured the song's acceptance at white radio. And, aware that MTV didn't play videos by black artists, CBS simply didn't make one for Jackson's first single from "Thriller." "The Girl Is Mine" debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 on November 6th, 1982, the date on which, not coincidentally, the rebound of black music's presence on that chart began, after a three-year steady decline. The fluffy single was not well received by critics.

"Michael's worst idea since 'Ben,'" was how Robert Christgau, writing in the Village Voice, judged it. For an album that not long after would be viewed as a masterpiece, this was an inauspicious beginning, although it did get on white radio as intended. The "Thriller" album itself was released three weeks later, November 30th, and on the chart dated December 25th it debuted at No. 11. This was a highly respectable chart debut in those pre-Soundscan days, although unexceptional, as even back then it was not unheard of for albums to debut inside the Top 10 or even at No. 1. In January, the album inched into the Top 10, moving to No. 9 for two weeks, then No. 8, before stalling for three weeks at No. 5, which was as far as the momentum generated by "The Girl Is Mine" would take it. While the album could already be considered a hit, "Thriller's" chart performance in those early weeks gave no hint of the juggernaut it would turn out to be. On the strength of the No.

2 pop chart peak of "The Girl Is Mine" just after Christmas, CBS Records knew their strategy to lead at radio with the McCartney "Trojan Horse" was a success. As 1983 began, the label prepared its campaign for the album's second single, the more "urban" sounding "Billie Jean." With the table already set, pop radio immediately started to play this follow-up single, and skeptics were indeed happy to find that "Thriller" had more thrilling things to offer than the McCartney duet. "Billie Jean" was nothing short of breathtaking, the kind of single that makes you stop in your tracks and always remember where you were when you first heard it. But with MTV the rage of the music world that winter, there was no way Jackson could occupy the central spot in pop culture without its support. And MTV didn't play black records. CBS gambled and filmed expensive videos for both "Billie Jean" and the next single, "Beat It"--videos that were a joy to behold. Jackson was a natural video star, his era's premiere song and dance man.

The two videos introduced a standard of choreography previously unseen in music videos, arguably surpassing even James Brown's 1960s live work, until then the gold standard against whom all R&B dancers were judged. As a visual art form, music video is naturally suited to choreography. Yet with the exception of Toni Basil's "Mickey" clip from the previous fall, there really hadn't been any accomplished dancing featured in videos shown on MTV. This was largely due to the fact that the music business hadn't in recent years nurtured artists who could dance-even the stars of disco music weren't consummate dancers themselves. All that would eventually change after "Thriller," with the coming of Madonna, Michael's sister Janet, and Paula Abdul, among others. But in the meantime, Michael Jackson had the MTV dance-floor to himself. NEXT PAGE (Page 3 of 4) Despite the obvious quality of the Jackson videos, MTV initially resisted playing them, claiming it was a rock station and Jackson didn't fit the format.

There is to this day some disagreement as to what led the channel to change its policy and add "Billie Jean." At the time, a story was widely circulated that CBS chief Walter Yetnikoff resorted to threatening to pull all of his label's videos off the channel if MTV didn't play "Billie Jean," but this claim has been refuted over the years by original MTV honchos Bob Pittman and Les Garland. They concede that the channel initially assumed it would not play the video, as its thumping beat and urban production did not fit the channel's "rock" image. They contend however that in mid-February, after seeing the clip--which was possibly the best that had ever come across their desks--they began to re-think things. Coupled with the fact that even without MTV, the song had just leaped in one week from No. 23 to No. 6 on the Hot 100, the MTV execs concluded they should give it a shot. "Billie Jean" "Beat It" "Thriller" MTV's -- and Jackson's -- timing was perfect. MTV debuted "Billie Jean," on March 1st, just four days before the song hit No.

1 on the Hot 100, making it the first uptempo urban song to accomplish that feat in over two years. Simultaneously, "Billie Jean's" momentum was the thing that finally pulled the "Thriller" album all the way up to No. 1 on the album chart in its 10th chart week. But a number one single and album turned out to be only the beginning-for both Jackson and MTV. Featuring Jackson's videos for "Billie Jean" and two weeks later for "Beat It" widened the video-clip channel's appeal as much as airplay on MTV widened the appeal of Michael Jackson. MTV was already at the white-hot center of the pop universe, but it was only when they added Michael Jackson that they found their real star. The idea of the hottest pop star in the world being shown on TV throughout the day-between the two clips, you didn't need to sit in front of your TV for very long to catch Michael on MTV-made the network even more talked-about than before.

New viewers watched MTV because they'd heard how great the Michael Jackson videos were; at the same time, MTVs core audience was blown away by videos featuring a type of music they weren't supposed to like-except it turned out they did. To use a modern term to describe what was happening back then, MTV and Michael Jackson made each other go viral. Jackson's second MTV video, for "Beat It," was yet another master stroke, incorporating live sound effects, real L.A. street gang members and the mass choreographed dancing which would become a signature part of Jackson's videos. The "Billie Jean" video had been a revelation because it showcased the brilliance of Jackson's performance. "Beat It" did that too, but it also set a new standard of production for music video itself, and in fact it became the more popular and acclaimed video of the two, despite the fact that "Billie Jean" was a bigger hit song. "Beat It" also represented another step in Jackson's master plan to appeal across all musical boundaries, with its rock feel and Eddie van Halen guitar solo.

It achieved that goal, being played on rock radio stations and earning Jackson yet another category of fans that would not otherwise have gravitated to his music (In this regard Michael Jackson was actually beaten to the punch by his older brother Jermaine, who featured the new wave band Devo on his 1982 hit "Let Me Tickle Your Fancy," which had also garnered some rock airplay) . Then, just when it didn't seem possible that Jackson could get any bigger, he did. On May 16th, with "Beat It" at No. 1 and "Billie Jean" still in the Top 10, Michael debuted the moonwalk on the Motown 25th Anniversary TV special on NBC. Drawn by a desire to see Michael Jackson's first performance on a stage since the release of "Thriller," 47 million Americans tuned in, many of whom did not yet have cable television and thus could not see Jackson's videos on MTV. The performance Jackson gave that night hurled his career even further into the stratosphere. A full year after "Thriller's" release, after the record-setting seven Top 10 singles and countless weeks at No.

1 on the album chart, making it the best-selling album of all time, Jackson still had one more trick up his "Thriller" sleeve: On December 2nd, he debuted his nearly 14-minute John Landis-directed video for the album's title track. It was immediately acclaimed as perhaps the greatest music video ever made and it reignited Michael-mania. A commercial videocassette featuring the short film shot to the top of the video chart and went on to become the biggest selling music video of all time. Meanwhile, the "Thriller" album, which had fallen out of the No. 1 position nearly six months earlier, now jumped back into the top spot just in time for Christmas and stayed there well into the new year. The Grammy telecast two months later, during which Jackson won eight Grammys, served as the formal coronation of Jackson as King of Pop, although now by that point the fact was obvious. NEXT PAGE (Page 4 of 4) But "Thriller's" legacy goes far beyond its own sales and awards accomplishments. Once MTV found success with Michael Jackson, videos by other black performers quickly appeared on the playlist.

This development single-handedly forced pop radio to reintroduce black music into its mix: After all, pop fans, now accustomed to seeing black artists and white artists on the same video channel, came to expect the same mix of music on pop radio. It was impossible to keep the various fragments of the audience isolated from one another any longer. Mass-appeal Top 40 radio itself made a big comeback due to this seismic shift. Beginning in early 1983 in Philadelphia, and rapidly spreading through the country, one or more FM stations in every city switched to Top 40 and many rose to the top of the ratings playing the mix of music made popular by MTV-young rock and urban hits. In the age of "Thriller," black music made a resounding comeback on the pop charts. If 1982 was the genre's low point in terms of pop success, by 1985 more than one third of all the hits on the Billboard Hot 100 were of urban radio origin.

Even Prince's "1999" single, shut out of pop radio upon its initial release in 1982, was re-launched in mid-1983 and off the back of its belated MTV exposure became a huge pop radio success the second time around. Thus, in a way few historians appreciate, the Michael Jackson/MTV team proved itself a remarkably progressive force, helping to reintegrate a fragmented popular culture at the dawn of the Reagan era. Black music was back at the center at the mainstream, and to this day it has never again been pushed from the spotlight. As an aside, the rise of MTV conversely spelled doom for country music's fortunes in the pop world. Prior to MTV, country music had, since the early 70's, become increasingly strong at pop radio, with its popularity culminating in the summer of 1981, during the "Urban Cowboy" craze, just as MTV was being launched. That summer, there were an average of 11 country records on the Billboard Hot 100 in any given week.

But MTV decided from day-one that country music would not be part of its programming and country's performance at pop radio steadily nosedived from that point onward. Soon, country records were completely shut out of the Hot 100, something that had never happened before. For all its record-setting accomplishments, the thing which never ceases to amaze me is that Michael Jackson pulled off what is perhaps the rarest trick in any field: After more than a decade of being an absolutely huge superstar, top of his field, sure-thing Hall of Famer, etc., he somehow found an extra gear and suddenly transcended mere superstardom, redefining the very notion of how big someone in his field could be. Try imagining J.K. Rowling suddenly coming out with a series of books that were so much better and more popular than the Harry Potter books that they rendered them a mere footnote to her career and you'll get the idea of what Michael Jackson accomplished with "Thriller." Newsweek's prediction just six month earlier that no new mass-appeal superstar would ever again emerge had proven spectacularly wrong, and for the time being, rock's doldrums had been cured.

Robert Christgau proclaimed that 1984 was the greatest year for pop singles since the height of Beatlemania, crediting the revival of Top 40 radio and the integration of MTV for this development. And lest there be any doubt that "Thriller" truly did unify all corners of the pop audience, it's worth noting that it won the hipper-than-thou Village Voice critics' poll for album of the year in addition to all those Grammys. Predictably, the death of Michael Jackson caused a lamentation about the impossibility of anyone ever doing it again. Shortly after Jackson's death The New York Times editorialized: "Fame on the the level Mr. Jackson has achieved is all but impossible for pop culture heroes today, and quite likely it will never be possible again." The similarity of these remarks to Newsweek's 1982 incorrect prediction is uncanny. The notion that never again will the conditions be right for a truly mass, sustainable musical moment is myopic, to say the least.

Despite a succession of on-line platforms that assume ever more fragmented audience niches, one would be foolish to bet against the potential for one to arise that encourages audience behavior which favors a vast coalition of sub-groups uniting behind something new and fantastic. Besides, pop music has always thrived on mass excitement; the yearning for shared cultural touchpoints seems to be hardwired into us. What "Thriller" taught us was that the right star, with the right product and the right technological environment, always has the ability to move us and to unite us all. Happy 30th anniversary, "Thriller." No doubt the next big thing is just around the corner. Steve Greenberg ( @steviegpro ) is the founder of S-Curve Records and a Grammy winning record producer who had an integral role in developing the careers of Hanson, Joss Stone and the Jonas Brothers, among many others. Find more of his writing here.

Michael Jackson Releases Thriller Michael Jackson Releases Thriller 1980 - 1989 Michael Jackson Releases Thriller Michael Jackson accepts an award from CBS and The Guinness Book Of World Records celebrating 'Thriller' as the largest-selling album of all time (25 million) February 7, 1984 at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Natural History in New York City. (Photo by Yvonne Hemsey/Getty Images) By Jennifer L. Goss, Contributing Writer On November 30, 1982, 24-year-old singer Michael Jackson released his album Thriller, which, in addition to the title track of the same name, included such popular singles as “Beat It,” “Billie Jean,” and “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’.” Thriller remains the best-selling album of all time and has sold over 104 million copies to date; 65 million of those copies were within the United States. A year later, on December 2, 1983, the “Thriller” music video premiered on MTV. The video, which featured a now-famous zombie dance, forever changed the music video industry.

The extreme popularity of Thriller cemented Jackson’s place in music history and helped secure his title as “The King of Pop.” Michael Jackson: The Early Years At age five, Michael Jackson broke onto the music scene as a member of the family group, “The Jackson Five.” He was the group’s youngest, baby-faced member and stole the hearts of Americans of all races. By age eleven, he was the group’s lead singer on many of their popular Motown-produced tracks, including “ABC,” “I Want You Back,” and “I’ll Be There.” In 1971, 13-year-old Michael Jackson also began a successful solo career. continue reading below our video 10 Facts About the Titanic That You Don't Know Prior to the release of Thriller, Michael Jackson released five other albums. His first major commercial success was the 1979 album, Off the Wall. This was his first collaboration with Quincy Jones, who would later produce the Thriller album. Although the album generated four number-one hits, Jackson felt that he had the capability of achieving even greater commercial success.

The Release of Thriller Production of Thriller began in the spring of 1982 and released on November 30 of the same year. The album featured nine songs, seven of which became number-one hits and were eventually released as singles. The nine songs were: “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’” “P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)” “The Lady in My Life” Two of the songs featured famous artists -- Paul McCartney sang a duet with Jackson on “The Girl Is Mine” and Eddie Van Halen played the guitar in “Beat It.” The album became immensely popular. The title song “Thriller” was ranked number one for 37 weeks and remained in the Billboard Charts “Top Ten” for 80 consecutive weeks. The album also garnered numerous awards, including a record-breaking 12 Grammy nominations, winning eight of them. The songs were just part of the Thriller craze. On March 25, 1983, Michael Jackson first introduced his famous dance move, the Moonwalk, while singing “Billie Jean” for the taped, Motown’s 25th Anniversary TV special. The Moonwalk itself became a sensation.

The Thriller Music Video Despite the Thriller album being hugely popular, it didn’t become iconic until Michael Jackson released his “Thriller” music video. Wanting the video to be spectacular, Jackson hired John Landis (the director of Blues Brothers, Trading Places, and An American Werewolf in London) to direct it. At nearly 14-minutes long, the “Thriller” video was almost a mini movie. Interestingly, Jackson, who was a Jehovah’s Witness, inserted a screen at the beginning of the video that stated: “Due to my strong personal convictions, I wish to stress that this film in no way endorses a belief in the occult.” Then the video began. The video featured a narrative story that started with Jackson and an on-screen girlfriend (Playboy Playmate Ola Ray) watching a movie about a werewolf. The couple left early from the movie and as they started walking home, ghouls began emerging from a graveyard. When the ghouls met Jackson and Ray on the street, Jackson transformed from a handsome young man into a decomposing zombie with incredible make-up artistry; he then led a posse of undead in a choreographed dance routine that remains popular today.

The rest of the video had Ray running from the ghouls and then, when she was almost captured, the scary images disappeared and what was left was Jackson in his regular form. However, as a surprise ending, the final scene shows Jackson, with his arm around Ray, turning back to the camera with glowing yellow eyes, while you hear the cackling of horror-narrator Vincent Price in the background. When the video first appeared on MTV on December 2, 1983, it captured the imaginations of young and old, and impressed everyone with the intensive make-up and special effects. At the video’s peak, it was often played twice per hour on MTV and won some of the first MTV Video Music Video Awards. In a way, it was a short film as the “Thriller” video was also nominated for an Oscar in 1984 in the short film category after completing the requisite one-week run in Los Angeles as a lead-in to the Disney film, Fantasia. A brief documentary, entitled The Making of Michael Jackson’s Thriller was also released to showcase the effort that went into the making of the music video. The video itself became the first music video added to the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry.

The entire Thriller album was added to the Library’s National Recording Registry, a spot reserved for albums of significant cultural value. Thriller’s Place Today In 2007, Sony Records released a special 25th Anniversary edition of the Thriller album. Until Jackson’s death in 2009, the album was actually ranked number two in all-time sales; however, this event catapulted the album above the Eagles’ Greatest Hits: 1971-75 into the top spot The Thriller album continues to remain popular and has been named as one of the most significant albums of all time by music industry media outlets including Rolling Stone Magazine, MTV, and VH1. Oh, and Thriller wasn’t just a U.S. craze, it became popular around the world.

Beat It | Michael Jackson Official Site Director: Bob Giraldi Primary Production Location: Los Angeles, California Michael Jackson’s short film for “Beat It” was the second of three short films produced for recordings from Thriller, which continues its reign as the biggest selling album of all time with worldwide sales in excess of 105 million as of June 1, 2016 and in December, 2015 became the first ever album to be awarded triple diamond status by the RIAA for US sales alone. The “Beat It” single reached No. 1 in six countries in the spring of 1983, including three consecutive weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100—becoming the fifth-highest selling single in America that same year. Alongside “Billie Jean,” “Beat It” gave Michael two songs in the Top 5 of the Billboard Hot 100 at the same time, a rare feat. “Beat It” was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America on May 9, 1983, and Platinum on February 14, 1989. The song won two Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and Best Rock Vocal Performance – Male.

“Beat It” landed on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and The 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time. Michael allowed “Beat It” to be used for a national public service commercial against drunk driving, prompting a Presidential Humanitarian Award from Ronald Reagan in 1984. The short film featured a set of rival inner city gangs (featuring a mix of dancers and actual Los Angeles gang members) united by Michael’s impassioned message of nonviolence. “I felt ‘Beat It’ should be interpreted literally, the way it was written, one gang against another on tough urban streets,” Michael wrote in his 1988 autobiography Moonwalk. “It had to be rough.” Michael’s wardrobe in “Beat It”—a zippered red leather jacket, black pants, white socks and black loafers—is still one of the most recognizable outfits in music history. The “Beat It” short film is one of Michael’s most awarded works of art. It won two American Music Awards for Favorite Video (Pop/Rock) and Favorite Video (Soul/R&B) and four Billboard Video Awards, including Best Overall Video and Best Choreography.

In 1983, it was named Video of the Year in both critic’s and reader’s polls in Rolling Stone. In 1992, the short film was inducted into the Music Video Producers Hall of Fame. MTV ranked “Beat It” as the 12th greatest music video of all time in 1999, one of three entries of Jackson’s on the chart alongside “Thriller” and “Billie Jean.” Additional Content Did “Thriller” Really Sell a Hundred Million Copies? - The New Yorker Did “Thriller” Really Sell a Hundred Million Copies? By January 4, 2013 In Michael Jackson’s New York Times obituary, the singer is credited with selling a hundred million copies of his most popular album, “Thriller”—and with selling an “estimated” seven hundred and fifty million records worldwide over his career. In a new book on Jackson, “Untouchable,” the writer Randall Sullivan repeats the hundred-million figure for “Thriller.” And earlier this year, fan sites were a buzzing with the news that the Michael Jackson estate had “confirmed” that Jackson had sold a total of a billion records.

Music-industry sales figures are a complex subject, but this doesn’t excuse the fact that they are often exaggerated for public consumption. The numbers surrounding Jackson have always been particularly outlandish. I was amused, for example, while reading a memoir by Jackson’s record producer, Quincy Jones, “Q on Producing,” to see that “Thriller” had sold a hundred million copies—and then, a few pages later, that it had sold a hundred and twenty million. I was sure by the end up of the book it would have risen to a hundred and fifty million. As for that billion figure, that came from a press release for Jackson’s estate a couple of years ago, which asserted, in passing and with no documentation, that the singer had sold an “estimated” billion records. Let’s look at facts, starting with “Thriller.” When you hear the words “platinum” and “gold” in relation to record sales, they are based on certifications from the Record Industry Association of America, known as the R.I.A.A. The group audits shipments of CDs (and, in the past, albums and cassettes), and gives those awards based on what’s boxed up and trucked out of the pressing plants.

Gold represents five hundred thousand units shipped, and platinum a million. Again, that’s shipped, not actually sold. “Thriller” has been certified platinum in the United States twenty-nine times as of 2009. (At the numbers Jackson has sold over the past nearly thirty years, the difference between units sold and shipped wouldn’t be that large. But in the pre-digital era, it was pretty common for an album that had sold, say, eight hundred thousand to get certified platinum—and then have the extra two hundred thousand returned unsold to the label and end up in the cutout bins.) In the nineteen-seventies and eighties, the famous Billboard charts were compiled by phone surveys of record-store employees, who were just asked “what was selling.” (I was one of them!) Since 1991, album sales in the U.S. have been counted by a company called SoundScan, which records the actual purchases of CDs in sales in actual stores. SoundScan showed that the traditional charts had been based on many misconceptions. We saw that overlooked genres like country and gospel were ringing up massive sales. We also learned that we didn’t have an accurate picture of buying patterns.

Before SoundScan, it was extremely rare for an album to début at No. 1 on the charts. After we had the real figures, we saw that it was, in fact, routine. To this day, anticipated releases by major stars open at No. 1 and typically have their highest sales that first week. For “Thriller,” we have R.I.A.A. data as of 2009, representing at least twenty-nine million albums. How about since Jackson died? Billboard, citing SoundScan figures, reported two years after Jackson’s death that “Thriller” had sold about two million more. It’s still selling, so at this point it’s safe to say it’s sold in the neighborhood of thirty-two million or so in the United States. But what about overseas? Could Jackson have sold another seventy million albums in other countries? It’s doubtful. I occasionally consult with a French music fan, Guillaume Vieira, who, in his off hours as a web developer, obsessively collects sales news from labels and official industry statements all over the globe. He charts the figures carefully, culls more data from a network of sources in the industry in various countries, and analyzes national sales patterns to fill in the blanks.

I have no way of checking all of his figures, of course, but his methodology strikes me as more persuasive than the self-serving assertions of record labels. Vieira totals up fifteen million copies of “Thriller” sold in Europe, three million in Asia, and so forth—and finds that Jackson might have sold an additional thirty-five million or so around the globe. (Here are some of his 2009 data points—before Jackson’s death—in an exhaustive post written under the nom de data MJ Dangerous. Vieira’s research is now being collected at a site called Fan of Music .) For “Thriller” to have sold anything close to a hundred million copies, there would have to be another thirty-five to forty million in sales out there that somehow have eluded official notice. That amount in itself would be as much as one of the biggest-selling albums of all time. The hundred-million figure is in all likelihood a lot of hooey. So how many records—albums, singles, and downloads—did Jackson sell in total? A tougher question. Classic-era Motown refused to have its sales audited by the industry, so there are no official gold and platinum figures from this era.

Vieira says that the Jackson 5 sold a bit less than fifty million singles and fifty million albums for the label. Jackson had a solo career at Motown (with hits like “Ben” and “Got To Be There”) and then further success with his brothers on Epic records, recording as the Jacksons. Then came his momentous adult solo career, beginning with the albums “Off the Wall” and “Thriller.” Did Jackson sell a billion records, or even seven hundred and fifty million? Sure, “Thriller” sold a lot of copies, but Jackson recorded infrequently, and his later albums sold nowhere near what “Thriller” did. We know from SoundScan figures that Jackson was selling, on average, roughly a million albums a year in the nineteen-nineties and the aughts in the U.S.—and that includes greatest-hits albums, like the four-million-selling “Number Ones.” That’s not nothing, but it’s not the sort of thing that adds up to a billion records over time. Vieira’s data collection encompasses sales of albums, singles, videos, ringtones, and digital downloads, all the way back to Jackson’s time with the Jackson 5.

He found that, around the time Jackson died, Jackson had sold about four hundred million records, give or take. Since Jackson’s death, he’s moved some forty million albums and fifty million song downloads, plus a lot of DVDs and ringtones for a total, more or less, of roughly five hundred and fifteen million sold. That’s about the same as the five hundred million-plus credited to the Beatles but less than any of the cumulative totals of the individual Beatles, Ringo included. (Paul McCartney, Vieira says, has total sales of some six hundred and seventy million.) I am always happy to exchange e-mails with Vieira, so I asked him what, based on his research, the other best-selling albums worldwide were. Here’s his list: 1. Michael Jackson, “Thriller”: 66,200,000 2. Soundtrack, “Grease”: 44,700,000 3. Pink Floyd, “The Dark Side of the Moon”: 44,200,000 4. Whitney Houston et al., “The Bodyguard”: 38,600,000 5.

The Bee Gees at al., “Saturday Night Fever”: 37,200,000 6. The Eagles, “Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975”: 36,900,000 7. Bob Marley, “Legend”: 36,800,000 8. Led Zeppelin, “IV”: 35,700,000 9. AC/DC, “Back in Black”: 35,700,000 10. Shania Twain, “Come on Over”: 35,400,000 11. Michael Jackson, “Bad”: 34,700,000 12. Soundtrack, “Dirty Dancing”: 33,300,000 13. Dire Straits, “Brothers in Arms”: 33,200,000 14. Alanis Morissette, “Jagged Little Pill”: 33,200,000 15.

Fleetwood Mac, “Rumours”: 33,000,000 16. The Beatles, “1”: 32,400,000 17. Pink Floyd, “The Wall”: 31,900,000 18. ABBA, “Gold”: 31,400,000 19. Guns N’ Roses, “Appetite for Destruction”: 30,800,000 20. Simon & Garfunkel, “Greatest Hits”: 30,700,000 21. Queen, “Greatest Hits”: 30,600,000 22. Celine Dion, “Let’s Talk About Love”: 30,300,000 23. Michael Jackson, “Dangerous”: 30,200,000 24. Celine Dion, “Falling into You”: 30,200,000 25.

The Eagles, “Hotel California”: 30,000,000 26. Bruce Springsteen, “Born in the U.S.A.”: 29,100,000 27. Metallica, “Metallica”: 28,900,000 28. Meat Loaf, “Bat Out of Hell”: 28,700,000 29. Soundtrack, “Titanic”: 28,500,000 30. The Beatles, “Abbey Road”: 28,300,000 The “Grease” soundtrack is a perennial seller. Along with the ever-popular “The Dark Side of the Moon,” those two albums seem safe at the No. 2 and 3 slots. Will they, and “Thriller,” be there forever? The digital era has also brought back the availability of the single; music fans no longer have to shell out for the whole album when they just want a song or two. It’s hard to see how numbers like those can be matched.

Vieira takes a different view: Although I would be contradicted by many on that point, yes, it is still easily possible to sell as many records as “Thriller,” “D.S.O.T.M.,” or “Grease.” Those albums are blockbusters—albums that reach groundbreaking sales, e.g. uncommon sales given the market. If we look at the years 1975 to 2005, the worst year for album sales worldwide was 1982—the year “Thriller” was released. On the other side, if you look at best-selling albums released on each of those years, the weakest is 2001’s top seller (Shakira’s “Laundry Service,” with less than twelve million), despite the biggest year for album sales of all time being… 2001. It means that market size has little to do with best-sellers. Market size is mostly dependent on the number of regular buyers, which is massively low at the moment. But blockbusters find their limits on the number of potential buyers (not regular ones), which is at an all-time high at the moment.

Adele ended up selling exactly the same as “Saturday Night Fever” did when it was released, slightly more than “Grease,” and over three times more than what “D.S.O.T.M.” sold during its first two years. What about China or India, I asked—could a Jackson-size phenom emerge from either country, each with a population far bigger than that of the United States? Definitely nothing crazy happening in China and India. Despite massive number of inhabitants their markets are pretty weak, similar to Australia or lower. In the golden age of the nineties, some local acts reached sales of three or four million in China, like their “local Michael Jackson” Jacky Cheung, with “The Goodbye Kiss” (arguably the best-selling album ever in continental Asia), and around two million in India, but those are the best-selling albums ever there. I can see Adele selling another thirty million albums over the next twenty years and coming up close to “Grease” or “D.S.O.T.M.” But leaving aside some astonishing phenomenon that sweeps the world , Jackson’s “Thriller” will forever remain in its position at No. 1—and it doesn’t need for its sales to be exaggerated to stay there.

Bill Wyman, who recently wrote about Michael Jackson for the magazine , is the former arts editor of Salon.com and National Public Radio. Photograph by Terry Lott/Sony Music Archive/Getty. Bill Wyman is the former arts editor of Salon and National Public Radio. BBC - Music - Review of Michael Jackson - Thriller Daryl Easlea 2010 It’s hard to believe now, but when Michael Jackson’s Thriller was released in the UK in time for Christmas 1982, there was an initial sense of misfire. In choosing the album's most lacklustre track, The Girl Is Mine, as its lead single, the postcard delivered was mildly disappointing. The playful duet with Paul McCartney , chosen no doubt to emulate the success McCartney had had earlier the same year with Stevie Wonder on Ebony and Ivory, was simply not what the listeners were expecting. It reached number eight on the UK chart, and the album sold well, but certainly not in the manner that the man who’d delivered Off the Wall should have done. By the following Christmas, Thriller had become the phenomenon it remains to this day.

Singles kept dropping off the album like golden fruit from a platinum bough: the precision snap of that snare on UK number one Billie Jean; the raucous Eddie Van Halen guitar on Beat It; the groove-driven frenzy of Wanna Be Startin' Something. It became apparent that this was a remarkable, ever-yielding pop jukebox. By 1984, the album got an extension on its lifecycle with the John Landis-directed video for Thriller, which took the album from successful pop record to cultural icon. Casting the then-clean cut, scandal-free singer as a werewolf in a 15-rated short film was a risk, but one that truly paid off. Soon enough Thriller had become a greatest hits package – seven of its nine tracks were issued as singles. Love it or hate it, Thriller is pop's great, immovable Everest. Marketing departments realised that more and more singles could be pulled from a record to prolong its shelf life, and Michael Jackson became the King of Pop with the whole of the recording industry at his investiture. It was, of course, never the same for Jackson after Thriller.

All that followed was a long, gradual downhill slope that culminated in some forgettable records and a tragic early death. But this view from the summit remains unparalleled. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Licence. If you choose to use this review on your site please link back to this page. Tracks 1 Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’ 2 Baby Be Mine 3 The Girl Is Mine 4 Thriller 8 P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing) 9 The Lady in My Life Clips taken from original discs may contain strong language. Michael Jackson Thriller Album Bio Thriller Album As an adult solo artist Michael Jackson set his sights as high as possible and dreamed of creating the best selling album in the world. Michael's first album, " Off The Wall " had sold very well, over 15 million copies and Michael worked again with worked with Quincy Jones as producer and Rod Temperton writing some of the songs including the title "Thriller". The albums aim was for every single to be a stand out track, and 7 of the albums 9 songs were released as singles. The exceptions being "Baby Be Mine" and "The Lady In My Life".

In promoting the album Michael was one of the first to use music videos to promote some of the songs. He created videos for 3 of the singles, Billie Jean, Beat It, and the Thriller video. After a slow start and some reported pressure from Michael the videos received regular plays on MTV which at the time was the worlds main satellite music channel and up until then rarely played music videos by black artists, including those by Michael. In fact it was MTV who actually funded the 14 minute Thriller video which went on to become a record breaker in its own right after the record label had refused to fund a third album video, being fully satisfied with the albums success. The release of the Thriller video again sent album sales soaring. Each video portrayed a story to go with the song, Michael often used to refer to these as short films rather than music videos. Michael also teamed up again with Paul McCartney for the track "The Girl Is Mine" which was the first single to be released from the album. Michael's sisters Janet Jackson and LaToya Jackson featured on back up vocals on "Pretty Young Thing". Album Track listings:

Question: Who released an album called Thriller in 1982?
Answer: Michael Jackson